so about a week ago, I check one of my two plants. the run-off is 7.5! The other plant's run off is about 6. then I checked the calibration of ph meter. seems to be ok. I flushed the plant. brought down the run-off PH to 6.5 Then fed it with 5.6 ph for couple days. Yesterday its run-off was 6.3. I checked it again today, after feeding at 5.6 ph. The run off is 7.5 again! The ph meter seems to be working correctly, and my other plant has the right run-off ph. what do i do? any advice? what am I doing wrong? The plants are in coco perlite.
Is it showing problems? If she looks fine I think you will just drive yourself crazy worrying about run off. I’d make sure ph going in is right on, and if she’s looking healthy I would leave it alone.never grown in coco myself, if she’s showing all sorts of deficiencies then I would start worrying.
Stop worrying about the run off ph. It's very hard to get an accurate reading. If it looks healthy just keep doing what you are doing.
she had been showing signs of toxicity/deficiency in the weeks prior to fixing the PH. she had burns around the edges of most leaves. looked like magnesium deficiency. She has been good since I fixed the PH last week. I am worried that the problems might come up again since the root zone PH seems to be off again.
Whoever came up with testing run off had too much time on their hands. It's going to vary sometimes buddy. Stop treating it and move on.
I feed daily and my ph and ppm going in are always what comes out.... however. Only thing that fluctuates is my ppm because it’s either feeding or it’s not. But I feed multiple times a day so it’s different if I was feeding once a day or every other day there would probably be swing on the PH but again that’s a different situation entirely. But my runoff tells me a lot about what’s going on in the root system at least on the ppm side. As long as my runoff is within a safe range I wouldn’t worry about it.
That sounds like a horrible way to grow. I don't like be married to my plants. I enjoy vacations and trips way to much to be tied down like that. I missed the part where he mentioned he grew in coco. My advice was directed towards soil. I have no intentions of ever growing in a set up where I can't get away.
I’m hooked to a 50 gallon reservoir and halo rings. I fill my reservoir once a week and the timers and reservoir put the rest on auto pilot.
Ya I couldn’t hand feed coco daily that’d drive me nuts. Automating watering is a must for coco for me.
yes. its actually driving me insane. how do you set your timer to water the plants? did you build the whole thing yourself? I was thinking of making a water irrigation system but I'm really bad at electronics and stuff.
Depends on what style you wanna use I prefer the halo rings as opposed to the drippers. They require less feeds per day from my experience. I just took my reservoir hooked a pump to it ran 1/2” tubing to 3 T’s that run to the halo rings. Then I bought a timer that will fire on and off by one minute increments and I have them water for 1 minute in the AM and PM. If you use drippers you’ll have to get buckets and time how long it takes them to use the amount of water you want to use each feeding. I run for 1 minutes because it guarantees run off. I currently have the system hooked to my hempy buckets. They drain into the black tray and then down into a drain stub that was for a toilet when my house was built. The first pic was about a month ago second one was yesterday.
I have to be able to leave my plants for at least 2 weeks at a time, sometimes more because of my job. Automated would be cool but I see people on here hand watering mostly and always think to myself how boring their life must be tied to their grow. Too much out their in life for that
Dude I know!! Idk how they do it! I did it for like 2 weeks and was like fuck this! That’s when I went automated forget hand watering twice daily no thanks! Luckily if I have to leave for more than a week I’ve got family here that can refill the reservoir. I’m running my first DWC plants and It’s almost too much for me. But I’ve been getting my ass kicked by the learning curve they say it gets easier but.... I’m not seeing it yet.
I would grow in soil if i could figure it out. All the potting soils that is sold in my country is garbage, basically sandy loom with a little perlite. I wanted to grow in peatmoss+vermicompost+coco as a replacement for soil but I didnt find out any info as to how to deal with PH in this type of medium or that if I could feed it like soil as opposed to coco. The only reason that I haven't stopped growing is that i need money. I actually haven't left my city in a year. only because I have to feed these plants everyday.
Tnx for sharing the setup. this is super sophisticated. I was thinking of buying a pump and putting it into reservoir and connect it to syringe hoses and put each hose on each pot. There is a screw on syringe hoses through which you can control the pressure of the passing liquid. I hope it works. managing run off is another problem. I like what you did to your pots. so the run off only comes of from the hose on the sides of the pot as opposed to the bottom? that is brilliant. I'm curious, in this way, wouldnt a lot of water/fert be laying in the bottom of your pots? are the bottom of pots closed?
Yep closed bottom! Those are 100% perlite hempys. The bottom acts as a reservoir so it holds a gallon of nutes in the bottom once the water level gets to the drain tubes it expells it. I water those every 3-4 days with fresh oxygenated nute solution so it refreshes the reservoir and pushes old nute solution out. Works really well I really like the hempys for photo periods. I prefer coco for my autos though.
Here's a simple automatic watering system cheap also. DIY Automatic Watering System for Indoor Cannabis It's a game changer for sure I can go days on end with out even opening the door to mine. I'm in late flower so they don't need me anymore.